Adjustment to a newborn. Sibling preparation makes a difference.

Two groups of 20 mothers and their firstborn children (matched for age and sex) were investigated to determine whether sibling preparation for the birth of a newborn made a difference in the behavior of the children and in the mothers' perceptions of their own ability to cope with the children. One group of mothers and their children attended a sibling preparation class; the other group did not. Each group was pretested and posttested with the Parent-Child Assessment Tool. A significant difference was found between the two groups.